Massimo d'Amore and a shaken-up PepsiCo
BusinessWeek has a look at the sturm and drang inside PepsiCo's marketing ranks since Massimo d'Amore took over as CEO of the company's Americas Beverages unit 16 months ago. The former engineer, who for a CEO has an unusually high amount of hands-on control of marketing, even helped Peter Arnell create and edit the SoBe Michael Jackson "Thriller" spot with Naomi Campbell and the dancing lizards. The article relates how d'Amore increasingly shut out his own marketing execs in favor of Arnell, with one Pepsi exec calling the experience "d'Amoralizing." There are some good inside details, like those describing a top Pepsi strategy meeting between PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Noovi, d'Amore and Arnell—again, no Pepsi marketing execs were present—where Noovi said she wanted Pepsi's can to become a design icon akin to an iPod. Arnell would come out of the meeting gushing about how the brand needed to "reparticipate in popular culture." This is a good read about d'Amore's self-described "big bang" with PepsiCo's most valued brand assets and the outsiders lighting that fuse. —Posted by Noreen O'Leary |
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Does Pepsi make soda or douche? Because they have the wrong people in charge if it's soda?
Posted by: thatguy | Apr 18, 2009 8:50:47 AM
This guy needs a reality check. Its soda, not a life experience. People get thirsty, they drink something, its that simple. I also love how he hasn't taken any flak about the tropicana debacle. The ad world would be much better without people like massimo.
Posted by: frank | Apr 19, 2009 4:45:04 PM
The folks at Coke must be laughing their heads off. The Pepsi logo is horrible. The hiring of Chiat is a desperate attempt to get cool spots from an agency that hasn't done cool work in 10 years. So sad.
Posted by: Lumunk | Apr 19, 2009 10:00:11 PM
